22.7.10

POWER (SNOOKER) TO THE PEOPLE

In terms of the professionalism of the launch, Power Snooker today made a promising start.

Journalists gathered at the Courtyard Hotel in the heart of central London were treated to a video presentation of the new concept by Ronnie O’Sullivan plus a press conference featuring O’Sullivan, Power Snooker promoter Rod Gunner, Barry Hearn, ITV head of sport Niall Sloane and Maurice Kelly of Rileys Clubs.

Power Snooker consists of matches of 30 minutes duration where points count rather than frames. There are nine reds racked in a diamond formation. The middle red is a ‘powerball’ and if it is potted all points scored in the next two minutes are worth double.

Any balls potted from the ‘powerzone’ – baulk – are worth double. A century is worth 50 bonus points.

There is a 20 second limit per shot and the audience at the O2 arena are required to make noise, rather than remain silent.

Power Snooker is designed to appeal to a more youthful audience than the traditional game. Players will wear microphones to catch their reactions.

It will be screened live on October 30 in two four programmes on ITV4, marking ITV’s return to snooker after nine years.

Trevor East, a former ITV head of sport, is in charge of international television distribution.

Gunner said that the plan was to stage a launch event and, if all goes well, have a global series taking in China, Europe, the Middle East and the USA with a grand finals in the UK.

So what do we make of all this, then?

It wasn’t Hearn’s idea but he is supporting it. “When Rod came to me with Power Snooker I was very receptive, as we should be to anything new,” he said.

“I was excited that this could help bring a new, young audience to snooker, which the game needs.”

However, Hearn stressed several times that Power Snooker was not designed to threaten the established form of snooker.

He said he had ring-fenced the ‘crown jewels’ – the World Championship, UK Championship and Masters – and left them immune to format changes.

O’Sullivan was less diplomatic. “I find the World Championship a bore,” he said.

“I know it’s the pinnacle of the sport and I’ve won it three times but 17 days in Sheffield is draining.

“People want to turn up, have a buzz and move on.

“Power Snooker is a challenge. It’s the future of snooker. People have to realise it’s the year 2010. We’re not stuck in the 1970s any more.”

Actually, Power Snooker is not intended to be the future of the game. It’s a standalone concept that nevertheless dovetails with Hearn’s ambitions to globalise the sport and better project the personalities of the players.

The truth is, Ronnie gets bored easily. Most things seem to bore him in the end. If he was playing Power Snooker every week it would bore him eventually.

That’s just how he is. If I were promoting a tournament he’d be the first name on my list of players but PR isn’t his thing.

I like Ronnie’s honesty and willingness to just speak his mind but I don’t agree with him. The World Championship remains a hugely popular sporting event because of the slow burning drama it generates.

As Hearn said, “it has created moments you couldn’t buy. It isn’t boring, it’s just different to Power Snooker.”

He added: “Ronnie’s not out of leftfield. He’s from somewhere else entirely. That’s why I love him so much.”

The first line of O’Sullivan’s obituary will mention the number of world titles he has won. This remains the ultimate achievement of any player.

His glib comments may have overshadowed the launch, which is a shame because Gunner, who has a very successful background in the entertainment and marketing sector, is clearly a man with bags of enthusiasm and the resources to back it up.

“We want people to get into snooker through Power Snooker,” Gunner said. “Twenty/20 cricket has encouraged people to watch Test matches and we hope to do similar.”

Perhaps the most significant part of this whole enterprise is the return of ITV to the fold.

Sloane has worked with Hearn through the PDC Grand Slam of Darts, which brought a large audience to ITV4.

70 comments:

I was a bit worried when I first read about this. It all sounded a bit 'Tenball' meets 'Pot Black Timeframe' to me!However, now I've had a chance to study the format, the addition of the shot clock seems to eliminate the fairly obvious flaws of Pot Black Timeframe.Tenball was never shown in my ITV region but there are elements of it in this format (the reds in a diamond, for example, although there are fewer of them this time around).Good luck to all involved with this- it's great to have Trevor East back involved with snooker. He did a lot for ITV's snooker coverage in the 1980s and with Sky Sports after that.I have nothing against new innovations like this but I hope they are AS WELL AS rather than INSTEAD OF traditional snooker, which is still by far my favourite format of the game.A word of warning, though: these sorts of things can fall flat on their faces: A very early PDC (then WDC) darts tournament experimented with a quadruple ring on the board. The idea was never heard of again!

I hope this is a success as a snooker spinoff but lets not confuse this with actual snooker- it would be more helpful if this new game to be played here was not called snooker but 'diamond snooker' as this would avoid any confusion that this is actually the same game as what is played normally under the name of 'snooker'. I hope this is a great success and a step towards getting more proper snooker tournaments - surely someone wants to promote and televise the world cup!

Let's just say that the software that does the counting and clocks and everything must have quite a sophisticated engine. I predict enormous technical difficulties and human mistakes. Forget the World Cup, it was nothing. :)

Everything always work on introduction videos.

I welcome the microphones, I really do. Sky Sports haven't mentioned anything about microphones for the Shoot Out event, have they? Now someone bring on the heart rate monitoring as well, that should be even more interesting.

The discord in snooker goes back to the eighties and early nineties when the old “Dry Snooker Clubs” were reinvented more like “Night Clubs” with plush carpets and lots of snooker tables and one arm bandits.

It’s great to see ITV back in snooker. I wonder if Dennis Taylor will now get measured for a brand new ITV Blazer though the old one didn’t get much use before the chop. Good luck also to the brave Ronnie for finding his branch of “Entertaining Snooker” everything is worth trying Dave.

There seems to be a bit of desperation out there Dave for something “Snooker” new. I don’t think there will be much difficulty lad attracting bids for “Snooker The Fine Art” method when I need a few bob especially with the worlds only “Sports Copyright”. Mr Hey You

Oh I can't wait! This is my kind of Snooker and even though I disagree with Ronnie about the WCS being boring I do agree with him about Power Snooker. Too bad I can't be there in October. Would sell my soul to the devil for it!

supplement:Why is everyone so mad at Ronnie, just because he said that he finds the Worlds to be boring? He spoke his mind and didn't insult anyone, so? What's the big deal? He finds it boring and if you know Ronnie a bit it can't come as a big surprise, can it?

If i turn up to a press conference i don't want to listen to a monosylablic-talking player, sounding like he is reading from press release, like PMQ's at the House of Commons.

O'Sullivan may let slip, but a great soundbite for quotes, better than anyone on the circuit. And, with the Rocket there, the chances of more inches in the press are a given,surely that is what the sport wants right now?

Great to finally have another tournament bar the Masters in the South. Think you'd have to go back at least 6 years to find Brighton/Bournemouth on the calendar. Now two in the Capital! About time

God, this Power Snooker sounds horrific...there is a reason why Snooker is the premiere televised cue sport and not Pool, and people should remember that when coming up with these new formats. People who don't like snooker but like a cue sport tend to like pool, so if they want to find new audiences why don't they stage something on the style of the Lindrum Masters and merge the audiences for the games?

As for the world championship not everyone wants to have "a buzz and move on". Many fans want to savour the epic battles it throws up. Ronnie is a runner, and he should appreciate that snooker needs its sprints, its middle distance event and its marathon.

he slagged off the top event of the organisation (WS) that he plays in and he has made a very good living off of.

while he probably thought it was good to say that, to get the juices flowing to exagerate how exciting this event will be, he effectively is adding fuel to fire about how boring normal snooker - the game that got as all interested in the first place - is.....

if hes that bored with it, id rather he gave it up and played mickey mouse events like this only.

Not sure I know why Ronnie's comments should (or are) of any relevance to the sport.Great sportsman are not necessarily shrewd in any sense of the world.Maradona couldn't manage his highly skilled country to World Cup glory any more than dear old Sevvy could galvanise a European Ryder Cup team.Ronnies thought and views on snooker remind me of a big group like U2 sending political messages to their fans between songs on stage.Pretentious? moi?

Sadly snooker fans don't understand the sport has to reach out to other people than snooker fans. The comparison with billiards a century ago is spot on: if these dinosaurs had been around then snooker wouldn't exist at all.

Ronnie not getting enough attention in the close season attempts to hijack the power snooker launch."Snooker is boring etc....zzzzz"Wake me up when you are done Ronnie, you one trick pony fine exponent of the game which can never be denied blah!!!Chip on shoulder talented nut-job nothing more or less.

ronnie only says things that he knows will get a reaction even though he doesnt agree with the crap hes saying. he is quite an insecure person .if he finds a player may take a bit of the limelight off him then you can gaurantee he will slag that player. selby, holt ,hendry a few years ago. I would rather see mr hey you do the PR for snooker and thats desperate. This new event seems a bit big break and also only a few players involved. good for them but not all members. if it helps to create future ranking events then great but that could be ages away .

I don't see why everyone should get so worked up about O'Sullivan's spiel, we all know he'll wake up tomorrow and say the opposite thing. Great player, strange human being. Although this event sounds a bit rag tag, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting. Let's hope this event and the shootout event are successful so Sky and ITV take on more events.

Okay I do understand that Ronnie introducing the Worlds as boring to potential new Fans isn't the desireable way to got but aside from this... I'd rather have a player speaking his mind then watching an smiling automaton saying what he was told to say...

It will interesting to see Luca Brecel. Also, who on earth will ITV have in the commentary box I wonder?

I think (for once) Ronnie has a point. There's no reason why the Crucible has to last 17 days, if Wimbledon manages with 13 and the Open Golf 4.

I would much rather see two shorter tournaments than one long one. We could still have longer matches at the World Championship, just not quite SO long that the players reach exhaustion and produce a disappointing final.

When Ronnie O, Barry and others have finished “Playing Around” with the beautiful game the “Fine Art” method will come to the Snooker Addicts rescue with “The Purity of Snooker”

There’s no hurry Dave as Copyright is near enough for ever or the owners “Running Time” plus another seventy years. Seriously Dave I think that Barry and Steve will have the game well organised along with wee John’s release round about Christmas Time or the year after. Mr Hey You

I hate the fact that every time something like this is floated, Mr O'sullivan is wheeled out to say how crap traditional Snooker is. It feels like Snooker is being run to please him and keep him interested.

I still don't see the damage. When Ronnie spoke about the size of his penis in front of the chinese press: That was damaging. But saying "I am bored by the worldchampionship" is just a fact, the way he sees things. so what? I don't get it.

Dave, how does one actually lay a snooker in Power Snooker? This may be a dumb question, but do they have the colours as well as the reds because from your description it sounds like there are only nine balls on the table plus the cue ball?

One question that's been niggling me Dave, do you know if the person involved called Ed Simons is one half of the Chemical Brothers? Or is it someone else entirely? I just noticed a reference to upbeat music in the pack.

1) The number of ROS haters on this blog is just plain astonishing. I don't get it. Has a man no right to express his opinion just because his name is "O'Sullivan"? Damn I remember Mark Selby to throw in some pretty stupid comments following his Crucible final appereance some years ago, and no one cared. Peter Ebdon and some other guys had some stupid comments regarding Hearn's plans to take over World Snooker, and no one cared. Even Shaun Murhpy is known for some of his comments and no one really cares, either.

2) I think, and you might jump out of you heads-full-of-hatred if you want, that there is no such ambassador of snooker, no such attraction to wide audiences, and probably never will be, as Ronnie is - except perhaps John Higgins and Steve Davis. I remebmer when John, Steve, Shaun Murphy and Ryan Day held first-ever professional snooker exhibition in Prague, Czech Republic, it draw an incredible amount of people to the venue. Year after that, when an exhibition called Battle of the Kings with Ronnie O'Sullivan vs. Neil Robertson has been announced (which Neil won 6-4 while making 147 break in the process), the snooker community there and in the neighbouring Slovakia has been flat-out shocked. It took me 1 hour to get a ticket but it took me a month to realize what has been achieved by luring ROS here. Year after that, the Battle of the Kings 2 has been announced, with Mark Selby and Peter Ebdon taking part, and 1/3 of people didn't care. Take a minute and think about it. But to do that, I am afraid you would have to understand what significance it has for Eastern Europe fans to have a possibility to watch top professional snooker, regardless of who's actually playing, LIVE.

3) And I am even no primary fan of Ronnie O'Sullivan. Actually, Michael White and Andrew Higginson are my 1 & 2. (This for all of you who might want to accuse me of being a ROS lover).

4) As for the PowerSnooker, I do not like it. Sound too weird, much too different. I think the OneForSeven format implemented by Global Snooker should have got a chance, maybe even on the professional circuit. Too bad it didn't.

Just to let everyone know, there is an interview with O'Sullivan on the BBC Sport website saying he wants to win the World title one last time. It really is best to ignore what comes out of his mouth and let his cue do the talking

ive been trying to avoid Ronnies idiotic comments now for almost two decades and that is why (directed at the numbers posts poster) i and probably many many others have no time for him as a person (but still rate him as a very very special player)

unfortunately, the powers that be tout him like a peanut performing monkey and so, we hear the rubbish far far too often.

Dave, you were there, did Ronnnie really say it? It is reported at Eurosport Russia site As ever O'Sullivan was sarcastic about the organizers of the world championships: "Snooker lost a great deal of its ability to entertain when they had adopted the rule which prohibits to concede the frame you have no chances to win. Then they prohibited swearing though I've done it in low voice. It can be said that every rule is meant to get the control over the sportsman. The players became more like prisoners. One cannot make the new rules only to punish the man who doesn't obey the system. I'm too proud to lick somebody's boots"

Selby and Ebdon has never damaged the Reputation of the sport like Ronnie has yesterday you can post all the Pro Ronnie Rubbish all you like but Snooker fans can not see what Ronnie said yesterday without feeling sick.

@ 11.30: I am a Snookerfan and I heard what Ronnie said at the press conference and I'm not feeling sick, not a bit.

Can we come back to the subject, which is Power Snooker, I guess. I think that not only Ronnie will benefit from the concept. There are pther players at the tour who play attacking rather then safe, too. Mark Allen, for example and also Neil Robertson. He's a brilliant potter and this Power snooker calls for brilliant potting. Also the raining worldchampion is "one of the worlds best longpotter" and the fact that longpots (pots from behind the Baulk line will probably quite often be longpots) count double in Power snooker might come in handy for Neil, too. I think that Mark Selby will have his difficulties with Power snooker because there's not much grinding time if the frames are limited to thirty minutes...

Selby will go and win it now and confound us all! Actually, Selby is not incapable of playing under time restrictions - he was runner-up in the Premier League (and winner of the round-robin) and also the Pool world champion, so I expect Selby will adapt to the conditions better than most players.

its quite fair to say that from the high majority of snooker players i know on the circuit, in person and from reading this and other websites that Ronnie is indeed looked upon by so so many as an outstanding talent, but also is a total bombscare when it comes to things like this.

Can we all stop talking about what ronnie said and get back to power snooker. I think it is brilliant. it will be great to watch on T.V as it is fast and exciting and it will be even better to watch live, the atmosphere will be awsomne as the crowd can get involved.

Dave I have just been on to seetickets.com and power snooker tickets are being sold from as little as £20 up to £70. This is a great invention, so I think we should buy our tickets before they are sold out!